Advice for the DAT!

Hello fellow pre-dents,

My name is Spencer Coronado and I’m going to use every writing skill in my power (yes, that’s right, all three) to hopefully organize your DAT preparation and ease your testing experience into something a little less terrifying. I am a junior biology major and psychology minor completing the new Bachelor of Science and Arts option here at UT. I took the DAT on August 19^th, 2014 and my standard scores were as follows: PAT: 21, QR: 24, RC: 27, BIO: 22, GC: 26, OC: 25, TS: 24, and AA: 25. I prepared for about 6 weeks over the summer. In this post I will explain how I studied and how the test actually was. If you have any questions I have not examined, feel free to message me through the Facebook page for TPS.

Firstly, it’s important that you have finished BIO311C/D, BIO325, CH301/302, CH320M/N, and CH220C before signing up for your DAT. These are the courses covered in the science portion of the DAT – general biology, genetics, general chemistry and organic chemistry. I included organic chemistry lab because the section on the DAT consistently has a question or two about lab techniques.

Once you have finished (and hopefully aced) these courses, you will have a strong science background that will make studying for the DAT easier. As well, you will have great sets of notes to study. The DAT also tests you on perceptual ability, which is essentially a bunch of mental puzzle problems where you have to rotate or form objects, passing them through keyholes or counting their sides. The DAT also tests your math skills from conversions and simple algebra through basic trigonometry, and reading skills (the easiest section in all honesty).

For DAT prep, you have a few options. You can pay about 1.5 K to 2K for a prep course by Kaplan or the Princeton Review, or if you want to be economical you can pay around a few hundred dollars to prepare. I chose the cheaper option and do not regret it. If you can set your own schedule and follow through, there is no need to be in a DAT prep class.

These are the materials I used to prepare for the DAT:

1. Chad's videos for general chemistry, organic chemistry, and math. Chad is a very clear, explanatory lecturer on Coursesaver.com who lets you pay to watch his DAT prep lectures. The chemistry videos are vital if you take notes and review the notes for a few weeks. You should get access to his videos and focus on understanding chemical principles as well as problem solving techniques.

2. DAT Bootcamp - I highly recommend it. The practice exams are perfect for chem/bio. I memorized every bio question on that site because I was scared how many I actually didn’t know (Did you know cartilage doesn’t have a blood supply, so it heals slower? Me neither. That’s why we all need DAT Bootcamp.)

3. Cliff's AP Biology 3rd Edition - I read the first half thoroughly, skimmed the second half. It's available online as a PDF for free, just google it and you’ve got a wealth of information that could give you a 20+ on the bio section.

4. Kaplan's Blue Book DAT 7th Edition - I took notes and studied all 15 biology chapters. It was a lot of material, but it really helped me organize my knowledge of various systems. I still have this, and if anyone wants it just message me and I’ll sell it super cheap.

5. DAT Destroyer/Math Destroyer – The destroyers are practice manuals for the sciences and math. I did all 516 biology problems in DAT destroyer on one day, about two before my DAT. It was insane and I recommend spacing it out a little more. I tried to remember all my wrong answers, which helped because the same topics were on the DAT’s bio section. I did about 100 ochem problems out of the ~200ish while inwardly crying that I was going to fail the orgo section of the DAT – it has never been my strongest subject, but what you must know is the destroyers are more difficult than the actual test. I did the first 4 exams in the Math Destroyer and got around 10-16 wrong out of a batch of 40 each time; these were highly representative of the real exam.

6. Crack DAT PAT: I got the edition with 10 PAT exams. The first time I took a PAT exam on CDP, I got a 16 and freaked that I was going to fail the DAT and have no future. It gets easier every time though. I had taken 6 PATs by the time I tested, mostly getting 21-23 range.

My personal experience taking the DAT:

1. Biology was random. Can't escape it. Just study all the main areas and go for true understanding mixed with fact memorization.

2. Gchem is basic, but tricky if you don't know all the nuances of why certain things are the way they are (concepts are important to avoid wrong answers – for example, in a galvanic cell, the redox reactions are spontaneous, while in an electrolytic cell they are non-spontaneous and must be supplied with electrical energy to occur).

3. Ochem wasn’t that bad, DAT bootcamp exams help a lot.

4. PAT was not bad, but it’s important that you are fast, as you have 1 hour for 90 questions.

*The 15 minute break after the science section is clutch; go to the bathroom so you don’t have to rush the next half of the exam; also drink some water or something with caffeine to keep your mind from growing sluggish as it is a 5 hour exam*

5. Reading was conquerable with search and destroy as your sole technique. The answers were verbatim in the passages, and if you work diligently, you can have time at the end to review answers or write a few math formulas down before the quantitative reasoning section begins.

6. Math was mostly algebra II and fractions, conversions. Speed is crucial here, perhaps even more so than the PAT; the calculator is your friend.

In closing, I hope this entry has helped you organize your DAT prep and lessened any anxiety. I was very worried for the exam myself, but once you are done, it is glorious.

Thanks for reading,

Spencer

The Dental School Application

This past week I had the privilege of going to a seminar about the TMDSAS application hosted by their assistant director.  The Texas Medical & Dental Schools Application Service is a service used by students to apply to medical, dental, and veterinary schools here in Texas.  Here are a couple of things I learned about the application:

1.     It is important to get to know your health advisor well at UT, because it is not uncommon for dental schools to call the health professions advising office to obtain feedback about students.

2.     It is necessary to send TMDSAS transcripts from every college where coursework was completed. For example, I took a summer history course through Houston Community College, so in addition to sending TMDSAS my University of Texas transcript, I must also send a transcript from HCC.

3.     Although the application opens May 1^st, your application will not be processed until TMDSAS has received your spring grades, so the earliest any application will be processed is after the last day of the semester.

4.     Beginning with the entry class of 2015, a “BCPM” GPA will be calculated by TMDSAS based on biology, chemistry, physics, and math courses. This is to replace the science GPA previously used for student evaluation.

5.     Once the application is submitted, the only parts available for edit by the applicant are contact information, planned coursework, test dates, and evaluators.

I would recommend the application information session to everyone before you embark on the application journey!  The seminar was very informative and made the daunting process seem a lot more manageable.

The best of luck to everyone applying!

-Megan Short

5 Reasons to Become a Dentist

1.    Service to Others: Help people maintain their appearance

2.    Have a flexible schedule and less time to get a degree- if you have your own practice, you can create your own schedule and spend time at home rather than in the office. Most dentists also don’t work on weekends. Furthermore, dentists don’t have to go through a residency like an M.D. does and dentists; therefore, getting a degree much faster.

3.  Be a Leader: Earn respect from your family and friends

4.  Be Creative: Use your artistic and scientific talents in many ways to help your patients

5.  Demand: Everyone needs to go to the dentist twice a year for checkups and many people go through having braces at some point in their life.

-Samir Manjee

How to Manage Stress During Finals

It’s that time of the semester again! As finals are only a week away, it is important to find healthy and positive ways to manage the stress that at this time of the year can become quite inevitable. An extreme amount of stress can have an affect on your health so here are certain tips to help your ability to cope!

Exercise! Research shows that exercise can help benefit your mind and body. That is, take a relaxing walk, run or swim to help relieve any stress that you may be feeling. Go for a bike ride or try going to the gym. After exercising, you may feel relaxed and energized and this sort of effect can last you for several hours. Furthermore, any physical activity will strengthen your body and help you to be more resistant to stress. Also, attempt to more eat fresh foods and less caffeine and junk food. This will help you to think more clearly!

Sleep! Although it seems impossible, regarding the fact that you have so much studying to get done, be sure to get a good 6-8 hours of sleep every night. Sleeping 3-4 hours will do you no good and have you anxious and emotional instead. 

Find support. You are not alone! Sharing your feelings with another person helps alleviate some of the stress you may be sensing. Call a friend, text a friend. Share your concerns to someone you trust and will not put more stress on you. Talking about it and letting your feelings out is one way to manage the stress.

Be positive. A few days to study a semester’s worth of learning may seem overwhelming. However, having the right mindset with you will leave you with more positive results. Tell yourself you can do it, be confident and know that there is a light at the end of every tunnel. Try organizing a to-do list or planner and reward yourself after accomplishing anything on that list. This will keep you going!

Meditate. Relaxing and focusing on you can be quite beneficial. This type of exercise will allow you to take a lot of deep breaths, which will help calm you. Meditation is simply one out of many ways to help keep the mind and body relaxed and focused. While meditating, you will release emotions that have been causing the body even more stress.

And lastly,

Have fun. Do not forget to smile and laugh! Staying up ‘till four at the PCL does not have to be the end of the world. Try listening to your favorite artist while you study and lift your mood. Take breaks once in a while and go down to the drag for a study break and/or simply do something that will you keep your mind off your studying at least for a while. Sometimes all it takes is watching a funny You-Tube clip to have you laughing. These are always great, healthy ways to de-stress.

With these said, toughen up future dentists! Find ways to manage your stress and do not forget all your hard work will pay off in the end. Good luck and study hard!

Bianca Chavez